Bear Islands

Bear Islands is Martin Ryšavý's follow up to his previous projects focusing on the far-eastern Russian region of Yakutia (the Sacha Republic). This film focuses on the people from the most remote part of this territory, which is the Nizhnekolymsky District. It primarily concentrates on the inhabitants of a reservation for polar bears located on Bear Island in the East Siberian Sea. It follows their migration to an abandoned polar station, where the past meets the present in an area that is always covered in snow. The film paints a portrait of the landscape, its past and the people who can be found there.